Pics: From Top Down
1. Inside an ice cave....Super Cool!
2. Just another show of Mt. Erebus (the volcano) taken from the airstrip
3. Some winterovers leaving the Ice....I never saw them smile before this day. I thought maybe, for some reason their facial features had frozen and wouldn't allow for smiles.
4. Me in my Survival Trench that I spent the night in.
5. My survival Trench from above
6. The rest of happy camper camp. Only myself and one other guy slept in a trench. Everyone else slept in either a Scott Tent(the triangle looking tent), a mountain tent, or the Quincy hut we built(only 3 people could fit in the Quincy).
7. Me pollinating the tomatoes in the greenhouse.
8. The Delta I drove to pick folks up at the airstrip. (It's a lot bigger than it looks in the picture)
Last week was my first full week of work as a GA (general assistant) which is the job I will hold for the rest of the season. Basically, I am a temp for all the different departments here. I float around and help folks with random stuff they need done. Usually, people ask for a GA's help with things that they don't want to do, so a lot of the time the work is not very fun. For example, this last Monday I shoveled snow for the whole 9 hour day.
Last week I spent Monday in the Galley helping with the food pull. Basically it is unloading all the food for the whole community will be eating for the week and storing it in the freezers and fridges in the kitchen. Tuesday I picked up passengers from some of the flights that were coming in. I drove what is called a Delta, an old Navy vehicle, out to the airstrip. Wednesday morning a flight was scheduled to arrive early in the morning so I had to leave town at 4 am. The flight ended up getting cancelled because a storm came in. We had to drive back to town in a caravan because you couldn't see a thing.
Wednesday I helped in the greenhouse. I helped clean out hydroponic tubes and equipment, pollinate tomatoes, prune cucumbers, and other random tasks. The temperature got up to 90 degrees inside the greenhouse.
Thursday I have no idea what I did. I probably shoveled snow.
Friday and Saturday I participated in what is called "happy camper" school. The name is deceiving. It is basically an Antarctic outdoor survival course. We spent two days out of town on the ice shelf learning how to erect shelters and stay alive if we got stranded out on the Ice. We spent the night outside and the temperature got down to -28 degrees not including the wind chill. It was the most miserable night of my life. I slept in a survival trench, which is basically a frozen coffin. It is a hole dug straight down and then a tunnel dug into the bottom of the hole to lay down in. It is not warm. I may have slept an hour and I woke up in the middle of the night disoriented hearing crunching sounds and freaked out. I thought that somehow my body temperature had warmed the miles of ice I was sleeping on and I was only seconds away from falling into the ocean. After about 5 mins of panic I decided I would be alright and stayed in my hole. We got back to town Saturday and I went to bed. The next day I ran into some other people who were out there and a number of us got frost nip. The doc here has assured us that it is not a permanent injury. Our skin will just peel off like a sunburn and then it will be OK.
Friday and Saturday I participated in what is called "happy camper" school. The name is deceiving. It is basically an Antarctic outdoor survival course. We spent two days out of town on the ice shelf learning how to erect shelters and stay alive if we got stranded out on the Ice. We spent the night outside and the temperature got down to -28 degrees not including the wind chill. It was the most miserable night of my life. I slept in a survival trench, which is basically a frozen coffin. It is a hole dug straight down and then a tunnel dug into the bottom of the hole to lay down in. It is not warm. I may have slept an hour and I woke up in the middle of the night disoriented hearing crunching sounds and freaked out. I thought that somehow my body temperature had warmed the miles of ice I was sleeping on and I was only seconds away from falling into the ocean. After about 5 mins of panic I decided I would be alright and stayed in my hole. We got back to town Saturday and I went to bed. The next day I ran into some other people who were out there and a number of us got frost nip. The doc here has assured us that it is not a permanent injury. Our skin will just peel off like a sunburn and then it will be OK.
Other news:
-I moved into a new room. "The Count"(my old vampire roommate) got two new roommates the day I moved out. I'm sure they look more appetizing to him because they still have some pigment left in their skin. My new roommates seem to have normal sleeping schedules and do not feed on the blood of the living.
-I had to cut my self off from Skua (the free salvation army bins) I have accumulated too many things already. However, I skua'd a robe and have never been happier getting out of the shower. It has made it a struggle to put on real clothes. I want to wear the robe to work, it is extremely comfy and classy.
-There are millions of people here now (not really only about 800, but about 400 more to come), there are lines for food and sometimes showers. It's a big change.
- We got Freshies for the first time in a month and a half. I have never appreciated a green banana more!
-I'm a DJ for a radio show and I need ideas for my show name. Martha suggested "yellow snow radio show" that's the #1 choice right now, if anyone has any other ideas let me know.
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